Never would have expected

As I finish my last semester at Mizzou, I’m beginning to reflect on how much I have learned the past four years. Not only academically, but about myself and the world in general.

Some daily habits have completely turned around 360 degrees since my freshman year, like how we use smart phones. Other routines become habits and when you put them into context, you realize how fascinating they truly are.

Here are both some serious and lighthearted things I never would have believed if you told me them 3½ years ago.

At Mizzou…

• When you're involved in a campus organization, you're basically running a small business - with a lot lower of a budget.
• One day, you'll use your entire print quota.
• 
Your computer will crash.
• Twitter will be incredibly popular and vital to your professional life, and your news consumption.
• You’ll be the only one of your roommates without an iPad.
• You will know your friends’ gas-buying habits, whether they wear a seatbelt and if they’re aisle or window seat-people on planes. And maybe you’ll even iron their clothes.
• You don’t only know all about your best friends’ families, but you know about their friends from high school, and THOSE people’s friends from college.
• Every journalism student frequents Shakespeare's and the Heidelberg.
• Guest lectures and special speakers provide a lot of insight, lessons and are amazing.
• Even universities have business travel. 
• Networking is so rich that you’ll get to have lunch with three CEOs your senior year. 

In society…

• Everyone will use 3G and a data plan on their cell phone, constantly being connected.  
• Every time you send a text message or email, you’ll be able to see it as a thread and not a standalone text.
• You can send a text message from your computer. 
• Five-hour energy will exist and be normal to use.
• Google + would start and be a big fail. 
• 
Outlet seats anywhere, on campus or in a coffee shop, are prime real estate.
• 
Finding housing and signing a lease is one of the most strenuous experiences you will go through.

What would you add to this list? 

Goodbye Google Reader

Freshman year of college, my friend Kara introduced me to the Google Reader tool. Essentially an RSS Feed, you can add both news sites and blogs to a reader tablet that links to stories and typically provides the first two grafs of the piece. I hopped on board and have been using it to consume news ever since.

I learned that the science to using GoogleReader was only putting news that you will be upset to miss. The more feeds and publications I added, the more there was on my agenda. Then, I was more likely to dismiss all of the news and ignore each publication. I limited it down to following Ad Age, Mashable, the Chicago Tribune, Bloomberg BusinessWeek and the Columbia Missourian daily. I also kept tabs on blogs from my previous internship in Argentina, Romenesko, Mizzou's student newspaper- The Maneater, an Orthodox Christian blog and the personal blogs and websites of all of my best friends.

The best part of the tool was that it delivered all of this into one product. I don't have to bookmark each of my friends' URLs and check it regularly, I get a notification when it's updated. This volume of news did not make my notifications number too high, so I was inclined to read each story and "star" relevant links that I would have bookmarked for the future.

Yesterday afternoon, my friend Kathryn emailed me the following screenshot that I saw moments later once I logged on.

Google Reader decided to power down because of a decline in use, claiming they want to focus on a subset of products rather than having a product for everything. I think this was an incredibly poor decision, since readers who used this were very loyal to this feed. Although people mock the fact that consumers still use RSS feeds and don't get all their news from tablets and Twitter, this type of platform shows more than news- but the personal news of bloggers and individuals who might not be present in the social sphere.

So for Google Reader buffs like me, here are some links I have found with alternatives:

• CNET: Five worthy alternatives to Google Reader
• The Old Reader
• Lifehacker: The Best Google Reader Alternative

Last basketball game

One of the most fun college memories I have over the past four years is attending Mizzou basketball games. This Tuesday was the last home basketball game in the student section of my college career, and I was happy to go with Kathryn, Sherman and Andrew - the best friends I have gone with to pretty much every game in college.

The game was bittersweet, and particularly interesting because it was the first time back at Mizzou Arena for former coach Mike Anderson, who stepped down from head coach in 2010 to go to Arkansas. After a lot of skepticism, "Faith in Haith" marked our next two seasons and games continued to be exciting. 

At the last basketball game each year, senior players have the opportunity to say a few words the crowd at the end of the game, in addition to celebrating "family night" and being recognized on the court. The three graduating seniors were Keion Bell, Alex Oriakhi and Laurence Bowers. The first two gave quick, cheery speeches, but then came Bowers - who gave a shout-out to his friend and player that recently left Mizzou basketball due to sexual assault allegations. 

"I told this guy I would never forget him when I got the mic, and that's Mike Dixon. I know he's not with us, but he's a part of this class, too, and we love him. Other than that I don't have too much to say. M-I-Z."

The arena was tense: some boo-ing, some cheering, I can't even describe the discomfort. The Missourian created this piece about reactions on Twitter. It created an awkward atmosphere because each individual's reaction showed their opinion on a controversial issue that still lurks around the Mizzou campus. Should Dixon have been able to play? Should he have left? Should we support a sexual assault victim? Is he not guilty? No one knows, but people take the news as they will. 

Between the coach situation, Dixon comment and last student game - the way everyone felt during this game really proved how sports create such strong emotions. I was almost brought to tears when each senior walked onto the court with his family at the beginning of the game. We were screaming with excitement at all of the slam dunks and three-point shots throughout the game. Our friends were emotional as we sang "Old Missouri, Fair Missouri" at the end. 

Even though I can't attend each game in the future, I'll continue to follow Mizzou basketball for years on end and smile at the camaraderie, arena atmosphere and experiences with my friends I had from 2009 to 2013. MIZ!

The intro video & start to each Mizzou basketball game 

Now...

And then...the four of us at a game sophomore year.

The scoreboard from my first Mizzou basketball game in 2009

Andrew, me, Sherman, Kathryn and Laura picking up our Big 12 Basketball tickets at Mizzou Arena at 7 a.m. I think I have more photos of us waiting in the cold in college than I do from games themselves!

Andrew, Sherman and I at one of our first basketball games freshmen year. As you can see, our outfits don't really change that much.

2012: Life lessons learned

Between graduation, graduate school and starting a lot of new chapters of my life this year, it's been an incremental time for wisdom and the molding of important morals and lessons. Through education, experiences and friendship, here are some takeaways engrained in my head after this last year. Some of it might sound cynical, but it is what it is! Qué será será.

Be confident in yourself and your decisions - don't base things off of what others think. 
It's important to be aware of the rationale for the decisions you make. Having a one-line answer for most of life's important questions is a good way I have learned to be concise and answer tough questions. Why do you want to work here? Why do you want to live in this city? Why are you voting for this candidate?

If you don't have answers to these questions yourself before they are asked, you start to let others' thoughts and insults get to you. I had to keep my composure as someone told me in a public meeting that the $80,000+ fundraiser I ran was a flop, and respond immediately with why I participate in Relay For Life. I've listened to dozens of people tell me graduating early was stupid, and (if they even asked) tell them why I did it. This isn't even talking behind people's backs, this is people putting your life decisions down in front of your face. At the end of the day, we can't be pessimists and allow this commentary to let us down. Acknowledging and understanding the reasons we are doing things helps us get through these times, rationalize our time and find a sense of purpose in the world.

We know nothing. 
Whenever you think you have learned a lot, think about how much more there is out there that you don't know. I've been in multiple conversations alone this year that make me feel stupid and without knowledge, but that's how you learn. Whether conversations are religious or understanding the Evangelical Orthodox Church, learning how Alaskan residents get paid by the state or more Spanish vocabulary words, there is always more that you don't know.

International news matters. 

Meeting international students, traveling and studying how news events abroad disseminate throughout the US has taught me the importance of paying attention to international news. With funding cut for news hubs, small sections for this in the newspaper and little coverage in local news, it takes extra effort to learn about what is going on in other countries. But it can and will affect us and is important to know. 

Don’t join an organization that you cannot contribute anything to.

We should be past the point in our lives where we're doing mindless things as resume builders. Hence, joining a group you know you will not do the work for hurts everyone. It doesn't only make it bad for your sense of contribution or belonging to a group, but for the organization's operations. I was in a meeting of 30 people earlier this year for a student foundation at Mizzou and when asked for two volunteers for an event, no one in the room offered. There is no point of even having a club if no one wants to participate. Therefore, even if timing and conflict will arise between activities, discover why you are passionate about the organizations you are a part of so you still want to help them even when you're busy. 

People don't grow up.
Adults fight and create drama in their work environments. They hold grudges and have exclusive lunch and dinner dates with co-workers they trust or become friends with. 30-somethings still pretend it is someone's birthday at dinner to get a free dessert. Bosses play favorites and move others around for grave reasons. People steal. These and many other examples show that even adults settle to these levels of behavior!

A lot of people are selfish. 
There's nothing I value more than true selflessness. I haven't met many people who achieve this, but someone who can listen in a conversation and not contribute comments about their own lives are the most admirable out there.

We are at a time in our lives where everyone wants what is best for them. That could be serious things like the best job or relationship, simple decisions like the best time to go grocery shopping or even situational decisions like having control and exerting opinion. This is a lesson I can say I had a tough time grasping. If someone sent me an email, I could never stare at it and not respond. I get anxious if I don't reply to someone's call or text message within hours of it being received. I have learned to acknowledge that other people do not operate like this, and can leave your voicemail on their phone for a month without even listening to it. Ignore your text about lunch, or never deliver on what they said they would in an email. Everyone's definition of important and priorities are different, so know that people do what is best for them.

Time flies by

I can't decide if summer goes by faster when you're at home--mainly staying in one place--or exploring new territory. In the past, I've had more extended travel experiences that broke off the summer into segments, and now, any travel I plan is on weekends for quick trips out of town. Living in other cities for those longer periods of time requires adjustment time and sometimes has felt slow, but you always leave feeling like there was more to do and how the experience flew by. Being at home, in Chicago for that matter, has given me a different concept of time. A different mindset than I have while I'm at school or traveling.

At school, I'm always mentally ahead of where I need to be, logistics-wise. My schedule has always revolved around others--classes, meetings, activities & friends--and you have to keep yourself up to speed. At the end of every night, all of my stuff is put away and I'm prepared to start off fresh in the morning, ready to go for the next day's plans. Sleep is irrelevant, because my outfit needs to be laid out, transportation planned & the day is on a pretty strict timeline. I guess you could call it living for the future.

At home, I'm living in the present. Waking up, getting on the train, conquering the ~hour commute to work each way, working the 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. life, having some sort of social plans and suddenly, it's 10 p.m. already. Go to bed, rinse, lather, repeat. Just kidding, but the process goes on. I often feel like I never left work once I return there in the morning. Each week goes by as its own entity, each weekend after, and the cycle continues. Suddenly, three weeks of relaxation and six weeks in the work force have gone by. I've rarely slept for more than six hours on any night and can't seem to catch a break. Unfortunately, as a result, I feel like I'm constantly falling behind on my own goals and living in rewind. 

But just because I haven't gotten to achieve my to do list of scrapbooking, cleaning or completing other long term projects doesn't mean it hasn't been an enjoyable summer. Forcing myself to do one of these things instead of taking up spontaneous plans would contradict living in the present. Catching up with an old friend or high school acquaintance on the train might be more valuable than rushing to read a book to cross it off of a list. Visiting Milwaukee, Champaign, Kansas City, Mexico & San Diego in the past few weeks has been incredibly fun, even if I haven't vacuumed my room but stare at that instruction on my to do list daily. I enjoy quality time with high school and college friends-in person, oh the phone or via email-- and it's great.

So will this worldview of living in the present translate to my graduate school career? Or will I need to revert back to planning SO FAR ahead? I'll have my own bedroom (and bathroom!) for the first time and will already have plans you on more of your own time instead of what it's like living with roommates. Two semesters will already go by quickly, but do you make more out of it by living in the present, the future or a combination of the two? I guess we will see as time goes on!